First Kiln Test

I’ve been so busy playing with the new kiln, that I haven’t had time to post anything here on how it’s going. So here are some pictures of the first few things I put in the kiln to test a full fuse firing schedule.

The first picture is before firing. Most of the pieces are Spectrum 96 Opal Art glass with a clear layer on top. One is a base layer of turquoise glass with a smaller square of the Opal Art glass on top. There is also a small square of red cathedral glass with a bit of dichroic glass. This was some scrap glass that I threw in at the last minute.

Here is the result.

So what did I learn?

Opal art glass has a slight texture to it that can result in some small bubbles. When I cut the Opal Art glass I also found that scoring on the patterned side of the glass worked better for me than scoring on the smooth side. This is contrary to conventional wisdom.

Don’t throw things in the kiln at the last minute. If I had thought about it for more than a nanosecond, I would have realized the red pieces were too small. When they started to heat up they separated or fell off. A second layer on top stacked like bricks probably would have prevented this.